Experiments also showed that the new coating is durable. Unlike some water-resistant coatings, it remains more-or-less intact when the fabric is rubbed vigorously, although it didn't survive an everyday washing machine cycle.

For Steven Bell, director of the Innovative Molecular Materials Group at Queen's University Belfast, it is this durability that represents the really exciting aspect of this work.

"Although the textiles did show some degradation in the mechanical abrasion tests, their performance was very impressive," he says. "The era of self-cleaning clothes may be closer than we think."